Their Darkest Hour
by bookgeek96
Summary: What ever happened with Ratchet when Team Prime was scattered after their base destroyed by Megatron in Darkest Hour? After everything he had been through, will the medic finally give up in this war? Will he have a friend to keep his hope alive? :Slight AU because of added OC but don't worry, she is not the main focus, only a side supportive character, no pairings, just partners:
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hey, this is bookgeek.**

**yeah my stories are all over the place, but this is one I really wanted to do, it takes place just after darkest hour from season 2 and occurs over the first four episodes of beast hunters. Though it does have Evee, I wanted it to be mostly focused on Ratchet's perspective, I didn't want my character to steal the spotlight so she is mostly serving as a supportive character. So this is slightly A/U ish**

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><p>Never had any of them felt so helpless in the war.<p>

It had all started with the siege of the Omega Lock on Cybertron; the Decepticons had acquired all four Omega Keys that had the ability to activate the lock and restore the dead world of the Cybertronians. But the Autobots knew that they could not allow their enemies to be the ones to reactivate their planet, if Megatron was its savior he would no doubt brand every Autobot as a war criminal and hunt every last one of them down to extinction.

Optimus Prime, with his newly repaired Star Saber, had led his team onto the dead planet to hold the Omega Lock, but that was when everything went horribly wrong.

The Decepticon war lord had always fought dirty, putting the Autobot's human friends into the mix, using them as hostages to repossess the recently captured Omega Keys from the Autobots was like a way to cheat at the finish line. The tables had been turned on them yet again.

The Autobot leader was torn.

His Optics glanced between the three terrified children being contained like stray Scraplets in the pods; the smug looks on their captors' face plates. He saw his team all stand in shock and fear for both their charges and planet, the smallest member of the team, a fourth human with Cybertronian metal and a battle mask hiding her identity, her body was rigid, her right metal arm was humming with Energon. The Prime's metal digits clenched the hilt of his sword, as he had to make the impossible decision: let their human allies perish at the hands of their enemies and keep the valuable Omega Keys, or hand over the last chance to save Cybertron in exchange.

There was no alternate choice; it was one or the other…

"If my choice dooms the future of our race then so be it, but I will never forsake our human allies…"

And with those words, he drove his sword into the ground between the Autobots and Decepticons and the Autobots relinquished their weapons. One by one they gave their keys to the ones they had fought so hard to keep them away from and took back their friends. The tension was like an acidic fog, seeping between the two sides.

And then Megatron crossed the line…

With one look from the war lord, Optimus' spark froze in its casing. More troopers emerged from a space bridge and surrounded team Prime as Megatron and his lackeys activated the long dormant Omega Lock, but revealed his true desires as another swirling green vortex materialized above the lock with a one-way path to the small organic planet of Earth.

"Why rule only one world…when I can rule two?" Megatron sneered.

"No!" Optimus heard Jack shout, his fists pounding against the glass of his container.

"Leave our planet alone!" Miko cried.

That was when all of chaos was released.

Optimus Prime seized the star saber and sliced down the row of Vehicons that surrounded them and thundered towards Megatron. The Decepticon let out an enraged scream and ran towards him with his Dark Star Saber in his stolen hand, one he had acquired from desecrating a sacred tomb of the Primes. With one powerful strike, Optimus cleaved his sword down on Megatron's shoulder and severed his sword arm clean off.

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><p>Another tremor sent Ratchet darting to cover the sensitive tech once again as dust and small rocks rained down from the silo roof. By the All-Spark, he had no idea what was going on but he prayed that the crashing systems and quakes were due to the activation of the Omega lock.<p>

How hard they had all fought to get to this point, finally able to go back to their home; the planet that he missed for eons and he wasn't about to let the opportunity get snatched away again, and he knew that Optimus and the team wouldn't either.

The medic was once counting down the days until he could get off of this planet; there were just so many things on it that revolted him, the dusty ground they drove on that got rocks and Primus knows what else caught up in his gears, the weather patterns that caused irritating precipitation, those insufferable Avialae creatures that flew over top and dropped disgusting excrement all over his hood and windshield…

But there might have been things he would possibly miss…the four humans that had joined Team Prime, the first being Evelyn Peters over six years ago, followed by The other three: Jackson Darby, Miko Nakadai and Rafael Esquivel. The old Autobot would never admit it out loud, especially when said four were within hearing range…but despite their fleshy composition, their habit of getting in the way or underfoot and Miko's tastes in the loud shriek metal that gave him a splitting processor ache…maybe they weren't such little urchins as he believed them to be.

There were those few moments where he really did admire how the youngest, Raf, could breach almost any firewall human or Cybertronian with the primitive computer he possessed, or the fierce determination that Evee possessed when she worked in the medical bay or fought in the field. The loyalty and maturity that Jack had when he brought the Autobot's back on their feet to get Optimus Prime back when he had lost his memories and joined the Decepticons. Even Miko's extreme optimism and quirkiness when her friends needed a good laugh; all were traits that would be hard for Ratchet to forget...

.::Ratchet…Please open a space bridge…::. Optimus Prime's voice had jarred the medic out of his thoughts. He noticed all of his computers were back online but something was extremely unsettling in the Prime's tone as he addressed him; there was an exhaustion that he had never heard before. Ratchet immediately reached for the lever after punching in the coordinates and opened the bridge.

The first shock to him was the sight of Jack, Miko and Raf in containment pods being carried in by their designated guardians; three out of the four humans that he had most definitely not sent up to Cybertron.

"The children?" He questioned in surprise, "What happened?"

He received no response, but there was a feeling of dread that made the silence seem more deafening than standing behind a jet engine powering up. He immediately counted the number of beings that came through the bridge but no one was missing in action. So why were they all so quiet like they had all just attended a funeral?

"Somebody say something!" Ratchet said in desperate attempt to get some sort of sign of life from any of them. Maybe their audio receptors were faulty from the inter-stellar travels? A temporary side effect from the new space bridge? But Bulkhead stopped after releasing Miko. He didn't meet the medic's optics and instead closed his own as he spoke, finally breaking the silence.

"Optimus…destroyed the Omega Lock…"

_'Destroyed the Omega Lock' _the words repeated in Ratchet's mind like a reoccurring nightmare…suddenly it felt like gravity hated him, pushing him down into the ground like he was being weighed down by the sky itself_. _But a voice spoke in the background.

"Ratchet?" it asked. Finally he shook his helm to realize that he was back in reality, he had been lost in a memory of recent events. It took a while for his optics to adjust to his surroundings but eventually he saw the open woodlands that he had been standing in, it was late in the evening and the moon was full. The small being standing beside his peds was looking up at him with concern, her emerald eyes seemed to mask the millions of tormented emotions that they wanted to betray, but she had settled for a simple anxious look, worried for him.

"Are you well?" she asked in a small voice.

"I'm fine." Ratchet huffed and looked away from the middle distance. The memory was still fresh; the argument was rolling through his processor like an instant replay…

_'You destroyed the only means of restoring our home?'_

_'All the countless sacrifices…FOR NOTHING?'_

"If you say so…" the girl spoke slowly but glanced around, "we should probably move out of the open…if you are up to it that is…we can stay here if you wish."

_'Right decision or wrong what's done is done…'_

_'The base is lost…I will remain behind to ensure the Decepticons do not follow.'_

"Just go, I will follow on my own terms." Ratchet replied in a colder tone than he probably intended. But the human girl, only looking perhaps thirteen at the most but was in reality more than half a century old, nodded solemnly. She had always behaved older, she always felt like she needed to…Ratchet didn't know if it was an act or not, but at the moment he didn't care. Without another word she slowly stepped away, leaving him with his thoughts and to attempt to clear her own.

Ratchet and the girl, Evee, had been bridged out together after the others, leaving Optimus in the base alone. None of them knew if he had perished, none of them knew what he was going to do. Not even the medic himself. As soon as they exited the space bridge portal to the unknown location, Ratchet had no idea what to think; he had always known to expect anything when Optimus and the Autobots left on missions, but never had he imagined his leader to do something so extreme…to sacrifice the fate of _their_ home…just to save an ungrateful race of organics that didn't even know who they were, who didn't even know how close they had come to extinction and would most likely never show any form of appreciation or gratitude. It made his Energon run cold.

He should have been furious, he should have started screaming and yelling and ripping up trees for all it was worth…

…But he couldn't. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't. An old friend, someone he had known longer than most others was dead? Injured? He shuddered at the thought, the not knowing.

He remained where he was that night, looking back at the moon as one sentence echoed through his mind.

_'I…never imagined it would end like this…'_

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><p><strong>Good? Bad? please review ^^ let me know, hopefully I get the next few chappies up soon<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

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>Chapter 2<p>

Ratchet eventually found the will to at least look to find where his charge had run off to when the sun rose over the horizon.

_Pah, my charge, more like my liability…_ he thought with a foul look as he stomped towards the thicker grove of trees. As the humans went, Evee was probably the most tolerable…at least she knew when to stay put.

Most of the time.

He wasn't even bothering to watch out for other humans along the way, if they got his mug shot to post all over the Internet then so be it, he really couldn't have cared less. There didn't seem to be any around as he glanced at his feet just in case the girl happened to be lying on the ground somewhere, but it turned out that she wasn't on the ground at all. When he glanced up at the tree line–which was about eye level with him–he saw the child sitting on a thick branch with one knee pulled up to her chest with both arms draped over it while her other leg simply hung carelessly off the side, looking like she was posing for a scene from that 'Tom Sawyer' novel that Jack Darby had once brought to base, all she needed was a straw hat and a piece of wheat in between her teeth and the picture would be complete.

She glanced over at him and gave him a slight smile when he approached but it faded as soon as it appeared.

"And you were in this tree the entire night?" Ratchet asked dryly while arching an optic ridge. Evee shrugged and glanced out to the small forest.

"It was a nice place to stay, and it's got a great view." She replied.

"I don't see anything spectacular about it."

Evee looked back at him when she realized what he was getting at and laughed once, "oh yeah, I guess it isn't really anything new for you."

But Ratchet didn't laugh. She probably didn't expect him to though because she immediately shrugged it off and stood up while keeping one hand on the trunk of the tree.

"But I actually saw a junk yard down that way, maybe we could go there soon?" she asked. Ratchet held out his hand for her to climb in and he set her on the ground.

"Why would you want to go to an unsanitary place like that…" he muttered.

"I have an idea to get in contact with the others, or at least a way to find them." She explained patiently. Ratchet only shook his helm in disgust.

"There is nothing useful at a waste disposal pit."

"Well there is the saying 'one man's trash is another man's treasure.'"

"You humans and your sayings…go there if you wish, but you will be going by yourself."

"Are you sure? Don't you want to know if we can find…"

"No."

He wasn't budging, but Evee assumed that he was still taking what had recently happened pretty hard and she couldn't fault him for that. She herself was still in shock, but the only thing that was keeping her going even now was the hope that she could find the others. She owed it to Ratchet to at least try, even if he wouldn't.

"…Alright, I'll let you know if I come across anything useful or mildly entertaining."

And with that she headed off, past her tree and down a light hill where the a wooden fence could be seen at the bottom, it bordered a large pile of twisted metal remains of vehicles and other lovely things that made the medic want to retch if that were possible. But he didn't turn away despite that. Even if he was not happy about it, he had to keep an eye on her.

He watched her agile form jump the wooden fence and heard a slight crash only indicating that she most likely landed on a pile of scrap metal on the other side, her loud curse shortly following confirmed that theory. A small guffaw wanted to escape his vocal processor but he forced it back even if there would be no one around to hear. Soon he heard the sound of shifting metal crashing against each other was evidential of her moving out of the pile and sure enough she was back in view from within the garbage dump. The medic could only shudder at the thought of all the bacteria she was exposing herself to.

Soon she vanished from sight again for some time. Ratchet soon found himself coming closer to the dump until he was standing at the fence, trying to see if he could catch a glimpse of her again. He only heard the sound of her digging through more metal like some stray Scraplet.

_The human can handle herself, what are you even doing here?_ He mentally scolded himself and was ready to turn around and head back up the hill but stopped when he heard her exclaim:

"Eureka!"

"What in the All-Spark…" the medic muttered and finally stepped over the knee-high fence despite his own protests. He was very careful not to step on any rubbish as he trekked through towards Evee's sounds. There were several piles of scrapped vehicles that stacked up higher than he was; shells, engines, tires and many other parts that would've made any mechanic or grease monkey drool at the sight. He finally spotted the girl sitting on the dusty ground with her back against what looked like the door of an old yellow punch buggy. She was hunched over some make shift device that was obviously created recently by her own hands. Ratchet never admitted it but he was always impressed on how fast the girl could put something useful together with just a few pieces of scrap and no tools. She glanced up at him wearing her usual wired expression she always possessed when she was in 'Cybertronian engineer' mode. It also appeared that she had made transmission fluid and greases a fashion statement because they were all over her face, hands and arms.

"I knew you'd come around! You wouldn't believe the doo-dads that I found from the hot-rodders in this fat city!" she exclaimed while gesturing to the mountains of vehicles around them. Ratchet rolled his eyes; he really hated it when she spoke like a youngster from the 1950s.

"Just tell me what you have decided to build…" he muttered.

"Alright, alright. Do you recall the time, I believe it was maybe four years prior, but when you taught me about spark signatures?" Evee asked eagerly, all but bouncing up in down like she had just solved Archimedes' dilemma with the king's crown–perhaps that explained her shouting Eureka–but Ratchet wasn't quite following where she was going with this.

"Naturally, and?" he asked. All right, he had to admit she had peaked his curiosity, which she was notorious for doing.

"Well I was spitballin' that idea as I was sitting back in that tree, and then it hit me when I was casting an eyeball here."

"Evelyn just tell me in coherent English would you?" Ratchet said while making a human-like gesture of pinching the plating between his eyes like one would do with their nose.

"Sorry, I'll clue you…darn it all…anyways, so I was thinking, every Cybertronian has a different spark pattern just like human finger prints, all of them are a little different," she said, emphasizing 'little' by holding up her right metal hand with her finger and thumb pressed together, "Over time I figured out Team Prime's different spark patterns with a scanner I once made, and maybe if I can construct another one out of these pieces, that's how…"

"…We can find the others." Ratchet finished, finally catching on. Evee beamed, knowing she had fully captured his interest.

"Exactly. I have a pretty good idea how with this car radio here attached to the translator over here," she said, tapping one hand on said device while the other was resting on an old car radio that was sitting on a pile of rags with some of the wires sticking out of the back, indicating that she had most likely ripped it out herself, "it might even help us pick out Decepticons."

"And how would you do that, you don't know a Decepticon's spark signature." Ratchet snorted, _aaaaand, grumpy is back_ Evee thought but wasn't deterred.

"That's the whole idea, if a signature pops up that we don't recognize, we goose it outta here–leave as fast as we can." She said, correcting herself quickly before he most likely threw something heavy or sharp at her, as he would do with any of the Autobots if they pushed him over the edge.

Ratchet grew quiet after her explanation. He wanted to believe that the plan would work, really he did…she had spoken her idea out with so much enthusiasm that it pained him to even think of how she would react if it didn't work.

He was an older bot than most, the oldest on Team Prime and was well known with the risks of hoping in dire situations. He had been to war and returned but the experiences and sights he lived through it would never leave him; the times he had shared the same naïve hope that Evee expressed and seen it extinguish along with the sparks of comrades he had hung those hopes on. He didn't have the courage to tell her the probability of the detector seeking out any of their friends; maybe he was just a soft-sparked old fool.

"Evelyn…how do you know that…" he started with a shaky exhale through his vents but slowly faded to silence like someone had fiddled with an imaginary volume button for his voice. Evee regarded him with a look in her eyes that made him unconsciously shift on his peds. It was a look of an older being, one that had seen many things in their life.

"I don't." she spoke, "but what other choice do we have my friend…"

And those words were all he needed to know. Perhaps she didn't seem as inexperienced in life as he truly believed. With the other children, they always seemed innocent; so blissfully unaware of how harsh the world truly could be, they seemed like normal children with their whole lives ahead of them.

Evelyn was never seen that way. Not to any of them. Despite her childish appearance with a ratty old sleeveless green hoodie, dirty, dusty blue pants and well-worn brown loafers on her feet with the old grey wool hat that she never removed from her head…it wasn't an act to be mature as he had come to believe in the past; it was an act to behave like a light-hearted child in the end. The quirky behavior, singing along to an old radio while she worked, playing video games against Rafael and Bumblebee on rainy days…it was all just a mask, a mask that she had almost perfected over her life. Though Ratchet never really understood the concept of human lifespans, mere flickers compared to his own; he had come to know that Evee's seventy-eight years on the planet was indeed a long time. Sixty-nine of those being on the run only made it seem even longer.

The medic had seen her true personality only for a split second, but it was all he needed to see. She almost reminded him of…Optimus. Both were able to keep things inside as not to burden anyone else with their troubles.

Though she had never really told him the entire story of her past, he did know that it was a dark one that no child should have to go through. Loosing her family after making contact with an essence of the ancient All-Spark; resulting in her extremely slow aging…

"Ratchet are you ok?" Evee asked him, breaking the silence. That was the second time she had asked him that. Ratchet shook the thoughts away and his usual scowl reappeared on his face.

"I am fine Evelyn…if I am feeling unwell that doesn't need to be your concern. He said, but he hesitated before saying that and Evee caught noticed.

"Ratchet…you don't need to get sore in order to hide your feeling from others." She said quietly, "If we're alone, we should be able to tell each other anything on our minds."

"Puh-leeze…" the medic scoffed, "this isn't some human slumber party, this is war, this is real life."

"I wouldn't think less of my friend," The girl said unfazed by his comment and rested a hand on his ankle while looking directly into his eyes, "I want you to know…nothing you say would lower my respect for you. Ever."

Ratchet shut his optics tight and stepped away from her touch. He didn't want to see the look she was giving him. He turned in pace and started heading off in the opposite direction.

"Just…keep working on your project." He almost whispered without looking back.

"Of course Ratchet…I'll tell you if I find anything." She complied softly and didn't speak again as he headed further away.


End file.
